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1	Teaching Sin: Manuals for Penitents and Self-Examination Literature in England, 1150-1400 Murchison, Krista A. January 2016 (has links) This dissertation offers the first full-length study of medieval England’s literary tradition of manuals for penitents—texts describing the sins, and other essentials of the faith, that address penitents preparing for confession. This tradition includes works that were among the most popular in medieval England. Some of these—including the Parson’s Tale and Ancrene Wisse, which is an important precursor to this body of writing—have been studied in depth, but the tradition in which they participate is still not well understood. This dissertation shows that this tradition emerged in a significant way in the second half of the thirteenth century, although it took root in an existing body of self-examination writing. Insofar as it reflects a new emphasis on reading as a means of interrogating oneself rather than as a means of preparing oneself to interrogate others, the development of these manuals represents a widening range of reading practices and a shift toward private confessional education. The first two chapters describe the characteristics of manuals for penitents, including their material and formal qualities. Among other contributions, the first chapter explores a feature of commentaries on the essentials of the faith that often goes unnoticed: that when they appear in manuals for penitents, they are not, as is often thought, digressive, impersonal, or strictly didactic, but instead encourage and promote self-reflection. The second chapter examines the implied and actual audiences of manuals for penitents. On the basis of this more precise characterization of these manuals, the final three chapters offer insight into three interlinked texts chosen from different stages of the development of these manuals: Ancrene Wisse, the Compileison, and the Parson’s Tale. In addition to shedding light on these three texts, these concluding chapters highlight some of the tensions that emerged surrounding the shift to asynchronous penitential learning that was enabled by these manuals. medieval confession Parson's Tale Chaucer Ancrene Wisse manuals for penitents Compileison pastoralia penitential education Manuel des péchés Somme le roi medieval England
2	Richard Rolle, Emendatio vitae: Amendinge of Lyf, a Middle English translation, edited from Dublin, Trinity College, MS 432 Kempster, John Hugh January 2007 (has links) Emendatio vitae was the most widely copied of all Richard Rolle’s writings in fourteenth and fifteenth-century England, and yet in modern scholarship this important work and its early audience have received comparatively little scholarly attention. My aim has been to address this lacuna by producing an edition of one of the seven Middle English translations of the text - Amendinge of Lyf - with notes and glossary. In an introductory study I adopt a dual focus: Rolle’s intended audience, and the actual early readers of this particular Middle English translation. Firstly, I conclude that Rolle may have intended Emendatio vitae as a work of ‘pastoralia’, for secular priests, and therefore with a wider audience of the laity also in mind. This being the case, it demonstrates that the adaptation of traditionally eremitic contemplative writings for a general audience, so widespread in the fifteenth-century, was already stirring in Rolle’s day. Secondly, I look in detail at a specific crosssection of Rolle’s early readership: a translator, several scribes and correctors, and other early readers and owners. The striking thing about this segment of the text’s reception is its breadth, including a priest, a number of prominent lay women and men, and by the end of the fifteenth-century also Dominican and Benedictine nuns. Richard Rolle Emendatio vitae Amendinge of Lyf Mending of Life Hermit Hampole Contemplative Contemplation Mystic Mysticism Middle English Mystics Fourteenth-century England Fifteenth-century England Contemplative Spirituality Vernacular Theology Monasticism Lay Literacy Nicholas Watson Ralph Hanna Hope Emily Allen Rudiger Spahl Alexandra Barratt Medieval Translator Translation Scribe Copyist Editor Edition Middle English Edition Middle English Translation Dominican Benedictine Pastoralia Parnell Wrottesly Nuns Nunnery Monks Monastry Linguistic Atlas Linguistic Profile Paleography Eremitic Glossary

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Teaching Sin: Manuals for Penitents and Self-Examination Literature in England, 1150-1400

Richard Rolle, Emendatio vitae: Amendinge of Lyf, a Middle English translation, edited from Dublin, Trinity College, MS 432